Best books about quantum mechanics for armchair physicists and beginners

The armchair physicist’s first foray into the concept of quantum mechanics was likely the very peculiar theory of Schrödinger’s Cat. It was first suggested by Austrian-Irish physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 and represents the paradox of quantum superposition – the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at once until it is measured.

The thought experiment asks us to imagine a cat, a flask of poison, a Geiger counter and a radioactive source sealed box. If the Geiger counter detects radioactivity, the flask is shattered which releases the poison – thereby killing the cat. Until the cat is observed, it is simultaneously alive and dead. Schrödinger used this thought experiment as a teaching tool to illustrate how quantum theory was being misunderstood. But can anyone truly understand quantum mechanics?

We chatted to Annabel E Gun, PhD researcher in Laser and Plasma Physics at Imperial College London and affiliate of the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science for some insight